Good Newsletters Aren't Brochures

Most email 'newsletters' I see aren't newsletters at all, but thinly disguised vehicles of self-promotion. The so-called articles refer to company products and services and read like brochures.

It's funny, we all read newspapers and magazines and, as readers, readily appreciate the difference between a good article with solid, useful information, and an ad. But put pen in hand, and most newsletter writers turn into ad copywriters.

Newsletters (good, effective ones) are exercises in journalism, not advertising. As soon as you make the editorial about 'you', it has the credibility of an ad. This is a shame because, by adopting the model of successful newspapers of the past 200 years, you can have the best of both worlds. The model is known as "Church and State" - editorial needs to be completely independent of advertising. The more readers can trust the editorial content, the more they will value the publication and notice the ads it carries.

Granted, the ultimate objective with email newsletters is usually self-promotion, but there are subtle and blatant ways of going about it.